A. Area of Invention
The present invention relates to electromedicine and, more particularly, to the application of a magnetic field to tissue and the subsequent measurement of electron spin and paramagnetic resonance properties of the tissue to ascertain and treat abnormalities associated therewith and with specific disease states.
B. Prior Art
The value and application of electron magnetic resonance (EMR) in biomedicine has been recognized, given its similarity, at least in principle, to proton magnetic resonance (often termed nuclear magnetic resonance or NMR). However, the field and frequency conditions under which an EMR signal is seen are different. In proton MRI, one of most common forms of NMR, the DC field may be on the order of 20,000 gauss (2 Tesla) at a radio frequency of about 85 MHz. In new high resolution NMR, the field strength may be increased to 12 Tesla at a microwave frequency of about 500 MHz. In distinction, the field associated with an EMR field may be as low as a fraction of a Tesla and under 1 GHz. These conditions, which historically related to different instrumentation, more importantly have lead to the realization that EMR techniques can be several orders of magnitude more sensitive than NMR, given that the electron magnetic moment is approximately 650 times stronger than that of the proton, even though the mass of the electron is far less than that of a proton, as above noted, is obtainable at field strengths and frequencies that are far less intrusive and, thereby, less hazardous than those associated with NMR. Because of these factors, the primary historic use of the NMR has been in association with analysis, imaging, and diagnosis of a wide variety of tissue related traditions, while NMR found little application in the treatment of tissue abnormalities or disorders.
EMR was discovered in 1925 by Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck. Thereafter its practical application was primarily in EMR spectrometers and, through the present, is used primarily in such applications. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,625 (2002) to Bryant et al.
EMR, sometimes termed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), has become a generic name given to the magnetic behavior of the electron when immersed in an external magnetic field. In EMR, the electron exhibits two key properties, namely, its magnetic field and a gyroscopic behavior. Therein, its electric field plays no part. Its magnetic field is often termed its dipole moment while its gyroscopic behavior is called its gyroscopic moment.
The greater the time domain differences between the magnetic components of an electromagnetic wave of a tissue, the greater will be the phase differences between the components and, thereby, the greater the energy loss or gain. As such, measurement of differences in phase between both moments of the electron have developed as a means of recognizing differences of properties between respective materials subject to an EM wave typically of dipole and gyroscopic moment inducing strength. This phase change and energy loss or gain relates exponentially to cellular and tissue functions.
From the perspective of quantum mechanics, the electron, while shifting positions within a permissible set of patterns relative to the atomic nucleus, generates specific energy emissions or spectra, i.e., EMR by body tissues and physiological structures. Such patterns have been found to comprise unique tissue signatures and, as such, a product of the individual atomic, molecular and cellular quantum movements which characterize the given tissue, organ or physiological structure of interest. Thereby, from my perspective of biophysics, the initial step in pathology emanating from a dysfunctional, damaged or diseased tissue is considered a misfunction of the EMR of the normal electron cloud associated with such tissue. EMR disorders thereby predispose biochemical and bioelectrical alterations reflected in each unique EMR signature of the tissue or structure of interest. When a disorder of measurable EMR occurs, the resonance and configuration of the normal electron cloud at the atomic level exhibit phase shifts which break and disturbs the otherwise orderly pathways of communication from atom to molecule, molecule to cell, cell to tissue, and tissue to organ. This results in breakdown in molecular and cellular communication one end result for example being a reduction in tissue conductivity.
The capacity of living tissue to produce an electromagnetic resonance response to external magnetic fields is established in the literature by various studies, including those reported by Engstrom (Resonances and Magnetic Field Detection in Biological System, Electricity and Magnetism in Biology and Medicine, edited by Bersani, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers (1999, P. 223); Pilla, et al, Lamore Precession/Dynamical System Model Allows Magnetic Field Effects on Ion binding (Electricity and Magnetism In Biology and Medicine, edited by Bersani, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publisher, 1999 P. 395); Muehsan and Pilla, Sensitivity of Cells and Tissues to Exogenous Fields: Dependence Upon Target System Initial State (Electricity and Magnetism in Biology and Medicine, P. 405); and Yasui et al, Effects of Magnetic Field Exposure on Calcium Channel Currents Using Patch-Clamp Technique (Electricity and Magnetism in Biology and Medicine 1999, P. 581).
The prior art also includes so-called TENS technology. The precise way that TENS devices reduce pain is not proven. The primary theory of mechanism involves the Gate Theory of pain, first proposed by Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall in 1965. Gate theory is based on several propositions:                The transmission of impulses from the body into the central nervous system is “gated” (altered, changed, modulated) in the spinal cord.        Gating is affected by the degree of activity in the large diameter and the small diameter nerve fibers. Impulses along the larger fibers tend to block pain transmission (close the gates) and more activity in the smaller fibers tends to facility transmission (open the gates).        This gating mechanism in the spinal cord is affected by descending impulses from the brain.        Large fibers may activate specific cognitive (thinking, analyzing) processes in the brain, which then influence the gate by downward impulse transmission.        
Under this theory, the electromagnetic output of TENS treatment stimulates the large nerve fibers, closing the gates and reducing the sensation of pain.
For the inventive electron magnetic resonance analyzer and treatment system to function, the system sends or receives information to and from the body, the body's cellular network or in some cases, the central nervous system, that is, its pain processing center. This pathway allows the EMR of the inventive system to record and analyze any phase-shifted EMR patterns emanating by and from the body's tissues and structures.
In case of assessing and treating pain, the inventive system also employs inductors and applicators at the site of pain, tissue abnormality and/or upon selected nervous system trigger or motor points (which can also comprise of acupuncture or pressure points). A synthesized EMR pattern is transmitted into the tissue which encounters the inherent resonance pattern produced by the tissue or subject matter under study. The information generated by this initial step of the analysis process is returned to the system where, after removal of impedance static in the signal it is analyzed, digitized and, if desired, compared to predetermined EMR patterns associated with such normal tissue. Thereby, the recorded data is assessed and evaluated for irregulates or abnormalities. The inherent EMR signatures of normal atoms, molecules, tissues and structures may thereby be employed as “standards” in the digitizing of values based on recorded and peak resonance emissions of healthy, non-diseased, non-damaged tissues. When such a first phase of the EMR pattern measurement and assessment is complete, the system has detected any disorder or shifting of EMR peaks at the pain site under study, if a phase shifts exists.
A second aspect of operation of the inventive system is that of its therapeutic action. If an EMR phase shift of the targeted tissue or organ is detected in the first aspect of analysis, the shift can be corrected through the application of a counter or neutralizing EMR which, as set forth below, is calculated and computed by the system, thereby resulting in a neurotransmitter function which is regulated by administration of a counter EMR pattern. It has been found that upon realignment of the phase shifted EMR pattern, reduction and alleviation of pain occur instantaneously, healing time is reduced and, upon suitable repetition of therapy, result in long term improvement of the abnormality of interest.
Pain is reduced or eliminated by means of effect on nociceptive afferent neurons which are sensitive to magnetic as well as a variety of noxious stimuli including thermal, mechanical, and chemical. Excitation of nociceptive neurons induce a field gradient into magnetic sensitive ion channels, particularly sodium, calcium and potassium channels. Nerve terminal membranes are magnetically encoded through the activation of inward depolarizing membrane currents or activation of outward currents. The main channels responsible for inward membrane currents are the voltage activated sodium and calcium channels.
It is known that an ionic gradient exists across the plasma membrane of virtually all human and animal cells. In particular, the concentration of potassium ions inside the cell is about ten times that in the extracellular fluid. Also sodium ions are present in much higher concentrations outside a cell than inside. As such, the potassium and sodium channels play an important role in membrane excitation and, thereby, in determining the intensity of pain. Sodium channels are now considered a destabilizing membrane in the pain process. These channels, which can open rapidly and transiently when the membrane is depolarized beyond about minus 40 mV, are essential for action of most neurons, potential generation, and conduction. These open channels are also believed to be responsible for the neuron action leading to pain. Sodium is also an alkali element (with an atomic number of 11) and is paramagnetic. That is, when placed in a magnetic field, a paramagnetic substance becomes magnetized parallel to the field. It is believed that a magnetic interaction thereby occurs between sodium channels and the EMR patterns and peaks discussed above. EMR affects sodium which in turn affects the excitability of nociceptive neurons which are chemically distinct from most other neurons                It has been found that EMR fields which consist of an EM carrier of a range of about 1 Hz to about 1 GHz, when modulated by EMR patterns in a range of about 0.1 gauss to about 4 Tesla, provide a regulating effect upon sodium channels, this leading to pain reduction.        
Tests have also indicated that EMR fields alter the pH level of water, which relates to another theory of the pain reduction associated with the present system. That is, it has been shown that the pH of extra-cellular fluid is associated with a number of patho-physiological conditions such as hypoxia/anoxia and inflammation. It has been reported that the pH of synovial fluid from enflamed joints is significantly more acid than is that of normal joints. As such, low pH solutions evoke a prolonged activation of sensory nerves and produce a sharp stinging pain. Consequently, when pH of tissue is changed, pain reduction is often achieved.
Successful treatment of arthritis, fibromyalgia, neuralgia, neuropathy, categories of joint and tissue injury, wound healing, calcific tendonitis, and various types of migraine headaches has been demonstrated.